49ers prepare to open Levi's Stadium with long to-do list

The rails to hold drinks are installed, but they don't yet have charging stations for your cellphone. The security canopies are up outside the entrance but don't have the metal detectors each fan will be required to pass through.

The 49ers lockers are built but don't yet have back-lit nameplates for the likes of Patrick Willis and Colin Kaepernick. And a 5-foot deep tub is in the players' rehab room but still needs an underwater treadmill.

"To the average person walking through here, it's going to look like there is a lot of work to do," said the 49ers project executive, Jack Hill, during a stadium tour this week. "It's the details. You can do 90 percent of the job, and what people are going to see is the 10 percent."

The $1.3 billion project is a bit ahead of schedule and officially 94 percent complete. The concrete and steel shell went up in the year after the April 2012 groundbreaking, and the team finished installing 68,983 scarlet red seats last month and a 106,000-square-foot custom-grown playing field in April.

The city by the end of the month hopes to issue a permit to transition the stadium from a construction site to an events venue, well ahead of a July 17 ribbon cutting and the first event on Aug. 2. The stadium is so close to opening that there are signs everywhere requiring workers to wear shoe-cover "booties" to ensure the floors don't get scuffed.

But take a spin through one of the airy concourses, and you see what Hill means about filling in the details.

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The shiny new beer taps await their Bud Light and 30 craft brews labels. The mini-kitchens with pizza ovens and chrome griddles aren't stocked with the ingredients for the rotisserie chicken mac and cheese or the 12,000 gourmet nitrate-free hot dogs expected to be sold each game. The 2,250 flat-screen TVs that line the stadium and the two crystal-clear megaboards behind the end zones still go haywire sometimes and need to be calibrated.

At the Valley Transportation Authority, the $14 million project to build an extra track to launch a convoy of trains that will take up to 15 percent of fans to the doorstep of the Field of Jeans won't be finished until mid-August. And the main parking lots, beaten up from thrill seekers visiting neighboring Great America and the constant pounding from construction vehicles? The team and city need to repave and stripe them.

The technological upgrades the 49ers hope will make their home the most advanced in the NFL are still in the final stages of development, too, from stadium-wide WiFi to an app that will allow fans to see which bathroom has the shortest line.

Then there are the countless deliveries: truck after truck unloading uniforms for staff, flat-bed golf carts to take injured players off the field, the floor needed to cover the field for concerts, and a "crazy" number of garbage cans, said 49ers vice president Jim Mercurio.

The operations need to be honed. The team will train 4,500 new ticket takers, ushers, food hawkers and other workers; set the entertainment lineup for half-time shows; and install exhibits in the Niners' Hall of Fame and Museum.

The team needs to fill out its lair, too. Coach Jim Harbaugh's office has a chair, a desk and a TV but not much else right now. The players will have to pick from 90 walnut lockers, 10 feet high by 3 feet wide, that feature their own personal power outlets, a ventilation strip to air out their sweaty uniforms and a deep storage drawer for back-up gear.

Of course, plenty of headaches need to be soothed. From the expansive open deck that greets fans atop the outside staircase to the VIP rooftop lounge that features a bar made from reclaimed wood from Moffett Field, crews are leaving hundreds of little blue sticky notes everywhere. They each denote a problem, as minor as a scratch on a table, and must all be fixed "to make sure everything is just perfect," Hill said.

Meanwhile, the uprights for the goal posts had to be taken down and re-ordered after the NFL approved a rule change requiring higher posts. And after seeing the stadium in real life, instead of on paper, some of the plans are changing in the fourth quarter of construction. More countdown game clocks are being added to the locker rooms, for instance.

Kyle Calhoon, a grounds manager for Levi's Stadium, edges the grass as a jumbo screen shows an image of San Francisco 49er tight end Vernon Davis, on June 16, 2014 in Santa Clara.
(Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

"It's like walking into your house for the first time," Hill said. "You say, 'you know, I'd like to have an outlet there.'"

Santa Clara officials, too, hired extra inspectors and are furiously working through their own extensive check list. For instance, workers say their ears are still ringing from the constant fire alarm testing that's been going on for three months.

"The stadium is not really any different from opening a library or a courthouse or even a private commercial building," said Dave Hatheway, the consultant representing the Santa Clara Stadium Authority. But there is one major difference: "There's not another one down the block where you can say 'this is how we did it then.' There's a bit of a learning curve to it."

While the to-do list is long, it's nothing the crews can't handle, the team and city say, thanks largely to their break-neck pace -- from dawn to dusk seven days a week -- that's continued since the opening day of work (Mercurio jokes that they haven't slept in two years). Hatheway, who's built three other stadiums, including the San Francisco Giants' AT&T Park, said it's the smoothest sports project he's been on and that he's "very, very confident" that everything will open on time and as planned.

One of the biggest tests will come June 29, when authorities will set up a stadium "dry run." They'll close the main street outside the stadium, Tasman Drive, just like on game days, and see how long it takes them to set up hand-rails, barricades and temporary traffic signs. Cadets from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office will walk across the street constantly to test out new traffic signals.

But perhaps the single biggest -- and last -- item on the check list? Cleaning up the mess they've made in the past 2½ years.

"There'll be an army of people here cleaning this place up," Hill said.

Friday: Full bike trail next to stadium reopensTuesday: New Marie P. DeBartolo Way street sign expected to go up to mark the stadium's address, on the old Centennial BoulevardWednesday: Final community meeting on planned stadium operationsJune 29: Dry run for stadium event: officials close streets, set up barricades and test traffic systemsJune 30: Santa Clara hopes to issue a temporary occupancy permit that allows events to be held at the stadiumJuly 4: Extra VTA service for big crowds to downtown San Jose fireworks will act as the test for new special-event service to the stadiumJuly 17: Ribbon-cutting ceremonyJuly 25: Tour for seat license holdersEarly August: Soft openings for the stadium's team store, museum and hall of fame, and Michael Mina's restaurantAug. 2: First stadium event, an MLS match between the San Jose Earthquakes and Seattle Sounders FCAug. 17: First 49ers pre-season home game, vs. Denver Broncos; expected completion for extra track needed for special VTA serviceAug. 24: Second and final 49ers pre-season home game, vs. San Diego ChargersSept. 14: First 49ers regular-season home game, vs. Chicago BearsSources: 49ers, Santa Clara, VTA